Guest Opinion

2011 Mining Fatalities
1/11/2012

MSHA has just recently released analysis on mining fatalities that occurred in 2011. There were 16 fatalities. There were a number of interesting points raised in the analysis. First we have to realize, the analysis of these 16 incidents are only the tip of the iceberg. There are over 200,000 metal/nonmetal miners and without question these 16 deaths some would say were the result of workers doing something unsafe. They should have known better than to do what led to their deaths. And I would say to you that you are absolutely right but why did these 16 hard working souls lose their life?

Unfortunately this is where luck enters the picture. Yes, luck can be an element of safety success or failure. Each of us can look back on something we have done that resulted in an injury or if we were lucky just a near miss. As you will see in the material I refer to, MSHA has worked very hard at finding the root cause to these fatalities. Unfortunately by highlighting events that many say will never happen to them much of MSHA's work is wasted and only being heard by deaf ears. If MSHA has missed the point, what exactly is the point?

The point is you cannot look at these fatalities as something that happens to someone else but rather any unsafe act could lead to serious injury or a death and once you have taken an unsafe path regardless of whether at home or work you can only hope you are lucky. You must take the following information and use it to prevent unsafe acts. In every fatality there were many opportunities to correct the condition or behavior where each of these hard working individuals might have avoided even a near miss. After we look at some of the MSHA findings I believe it will be clear that we can only be injury free by eliminating unsafe acts.

One fourth of the fatalities were contractors or, as we should look at it, visitors doing work on mine property. How do we train contractors? How do we monitor their general work practices? Who are contractors working on our sites? Should we say something if we see a contractor working unsafe? What were the occupations?

The following charts show the percentage of fatalities that occurred in each category. We will see in the next chart that unsafe acts can impact every position at our operations.

Can you draw any conclusions as to what occupation is the most hazardous in mining? Laborer and machinery/plant operator each have almost a third of the fatalities but what about the supervisor position? Is this position hazardous because of job duties or is it because supervisors sometimes take chances they say they would never let their employee take? Is taking chances showing a commitment to safety or does it send the wrong message? The next chart has some of the most striking information on what really is the problem.

What do you see here? What activity is going on when 10 of the 16 fatalities occur? Who was doing this type of work? Was it laborers, equipment operators, plant operators, or all of them? Maintenance and repair is done by everyone and it clearly poses the most risk for many reasons. What do you think are the reasons this activity resulted in so many fatalities? Have you just been lucky?

Experience is another key factor that can greatly impact how safely you work or play.

Even though the fatalities cover all total mining experience categories the highest number, 4 out of 16, were employees with less than one year total experience in mining. Why would a green hat be more likely to do something unsafe? Does it have anything to do with age or understanding mining hazards? We need to look even deeper.

This chart describes fatalities by job experience. Seven of the fatalities involved miners with less than one year in their particular job. Why would the first year in a new job be more hazardous than other years? What could help reduce the likelihood of job hazards leading to injury or death? Would training help?

Neither age, day of the week, nor hour of the day had any significant impact. The root causes as determined by MSHA were:

• Training Inadequate
• Failure to Conduct Examinations
• No Risk Assessment Conducted
• Inadequate Policies, Procedures, Controls
• Procedures not Followed or Monitored
• Personal Protective Equipment not used
• Did not conduct Pre-operation Checks
• Equipment not Maintained

Are these common to incidents that have happened to you or at your operations? We are faced every day with decisions on whether we take unnecessary chances when we work or play. Sometimes in the workplace we make decisions without adequate training, without proper planning (JSA), pressure to get the job completed, or just because we are tired or even just plain lazy.

As you think of whether any of the root causes of the 16 mine fatalities in 2011 are a valid reason for someone dying, stop and ask yourself; have I made any of those mistakes in doing my work? Was I lucky that I did not become a statistic we are talking about?

We are fortunate to work for a company that is dedicated to developing a safety culture that will eventually lead us to zero unsafe acts and zero unsafe injuries. We have a strong system of Safety Principles that counteract each of the root causes listed above:

• Management Commitment
• Safety Training
• Audits
• Injury/Incident Investigation
• Line Responsibility for Safety
• JSA

And the last and equally if not more important – Employee Involvement. Have the courage to step up to the next level. The sixteen deaths of fellow miners are preventable. As I am sure you now recognize maintenance, repair, and construction must be considered as the most hazardous activity any of us could undertake. Don't let luck be your guide. Use the Safety Principles. We know how to take luck out of the equation but it takes each and every one of us to prevent unsafe acts first!

Ed Elliott
Director of Safety
Rogers Group